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In the quest for healthier sweeteners, many manufacturers have turned to organic brown rice syrup, but in the process may inadvertently have introduced high levels of arsenic into their products, researchers reported.
The syrup itself and products made from it – including toddler formula and energy bars – have significant concentrations of arsenic, according to Brian Jackson, PhD, and colleagues at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
In some cases, the levels are as much as six times higher than Environmental Protection Agency limits for safe drinking water, Jackson and colleagues reported online in Environmental Health Perspectives.
There are no U.S. regulations governing arsenic in food, although there are for drinking water, and the findings suggest "an urgent need" for such guidelines, the researchers concluded.
The Dartmouth group has previously shown that brown rice itself contains significant levels of arsenic, probably as a result of natural processes. Arsenic in the soil accumulates in the plant, with inorganic arsenic – the more toxic variety – building up in the outermost layer, which is removed when the rice is polished.
Because of the increasing use of organic brown rice syrup, the researchers suspected it too might increase arsenic in the diet. To test the hypothesis, they used mass spectrometry techniques to analyze the arsenic content of the syrups themselves and a range of products made with and without brown rice syrup.
Analysis of three commercially available brown rice syrups, including two different lots of one brand, found total arsenic concentrations ranging from 80 to 400 nanograms per gram.
The proportion of inorganic arsenic was between 80% and 90% of the total for two of the three syrups, but only 50% for the third. However, that product had a much higher total arsenic, so its concentration of the inorganic species also was the highest, Jackson and colleagues reported.
The researchers also analyzed 17 formulas, 15 without organic brown rice syrup and two that did contain it – a dairy- and a soy-based product.
In the products without the syrup, the total arsenic concentrations were between 2 and 12 ng/g. In the other two, concentrations were more than 20 times higher, Jackson and colleagues found.
The proportion of inorganic arsenic varied both between products and between lots of the soy-based product, the researchers reported, but when they were reconstituted, the concentration was at or above the U.S. regulatory limit for safe drinking water: 10 mcg/L.
In one lot of the reconstituted soy-based product, the total arsenic concentration was more than 60 mcg/L, they found.
On the positive side, the researchers noted, a web-based search found only those two products containing the syrup on the formula market, so the number of children using this formula "is presumably a very low percentage."
Analyses found similar results in cereal-based energy bars and so-called energy shots, gel-like blocks sold as high-energy athletic performance products, the researchers reported.
A savvy consumer, the researchers noted, might be aware of the link between rice and arsenic, but that link might not be apparent in either baby formula or the energy shots.
Taken together, the findings suggest that the product using organic brown rice syrup "may introduce significant concentrations of (inorganic arsenic) to an individual's diet," Jackson and colleagues concluded.
The
study had support from the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency. The journal said none
of the authors have any actual or potential competing financial
interests.
Primary source: Environmental Health Perspectives
Source reference:
Jackson BP, et al "Arsenic, organic foods, and brown rice syrup" Environ Health Perspect 2012; DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1104619.
Source reference:
Jackson BP, et al "Arsenic, organic foods, and brown rice syrup" Environ Health Perspect 2012; DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1104619.
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